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Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan’s troubles have mounted as the Income Tax department raided over 30 premises in Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh Wednesday in connection with its probe against Azam and his associates in an alleged tax evasion case.
This was not the first time that Azam has found himself at the receiving end of an investigative agency’s action in recent years. His woes began soon after the BJP swept to power in UP and formed its government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in 2017. As many as 81 cases have since been registered against the SP stalwart in Rampur on several charges including land grabbing, cheating, criminal trespass and hate speech.
Khan’s wife and ex-MP Tanzeen Fatima and their son and former MLA Abdullah Azam Khan have also been booked in at least 40 cases. All three are currently out on bail.
Azam along with Tanzeen and Abdullah was arrested in February 2020 in a case of alleged forgery of the latter’s birth certificate. Azam was released from jail in May 2022. Tanzeen was released from prison in December 2020 and Abdullah in January 2022.
On October 27 last year, Azam was convicted in a hate speech case lodged ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was sentenced to three-year imprisonment. Soon after this verdict given by a Rampur MP/MLA court, Azam was disqualified as an MLA and his seat, Rampur Sadar, which he has won 10 times over the last several decades, was declared vacant.
The ensuing Rampur Sadar bypoll in December saw Azam’s long-time rival and BJP leader Akash Saxena trouncing his close confidant Asim Raja by 34,136 votes. In the run-up to the bypoll, election officials also passed an order for removal of Azam’s name from the electoral roll, citing Sections of the Representation of People Act.
The case which led to Azam’s disqualification was lodged on April 9, 2019 under IPC Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 505(1) (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report) of the IPC besides the Representation of the People Act’s Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election).
On May 24 this year, Azam’s appeal against his conviction was allowed by a higher court, and he was acquitted in the hate speech case. Rampur Additional District and Sessions Judge Amit Veer Singh set aside the lower court’s verdict in the matter.
The court said the prosecution could not prove that the accused said anything in the speech which could result in enmity on the basis of religion, lineage, place of birth, place of residence, and language. The court also took note of the statement of “Prosecution Witness 1” Anil Kumar Chauhan (an election official based on whose complaint the FIR against Azam was lodged), who told the court that he filed the complaint against Azam “under pressure” from then Rampur district magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar Singh.
The UP government has filed an appeal against Azam’s acquittal in the Allahabad High Court.
In July this year, Azam was convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a separate hate speech case, which was registered on April 8, 2019, just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, at Shahjad Nagar police station in Rampur.
According to the complaint in this case, Azam allegedly made an “inflammatory” speech targeting CM Adityanath and the then Rampur district magistrate (Aunjaneya Kumar Singh), who was also the returning officer, at a public meeting in the Milak area. Days before this conviction, the state government withdrew Azam’s “Y category” security cover, saying it was no longer required.
In February this year, a Moradabad court sentenced Azam and his son Abdullah to two years’ imprisonment in a 15-year-old case in which they were booked for blocking traffic after their vehicle was stopped by police for checking. Abdullah was disqualified as an MLA and his seat Suar adjoining Rampur was vacated.
Subsequently, in the Suar bypoll, held in May, the BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal)’s candidate Shafeek Ahmed Ansari defeated the SP’s nominee Anuradha Chauhan to bag the seat.
